1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fault locators. More particularly, the present invention provides an electrical fault locator that can automatically and accurately locate both short-circuit and open-circuit faults.
2. Description of Prior Art
As aircraft, other vehicles, backplanes, appliances, black-boxes, and other equipment become more and more complex, electrical circuits used to power and control such equipment also becomes more and more complex. Testing for and locating faults within complex electrical circuits can be quite demanding and labor intensive, since electrical circuits may include hundreds of termination points that need to be tested.
In an effort to help technicians find faults within electrical circuits, many testing mechanisms have been developed. Most mechanisms simply identify which specific termination points of electrical circuits are in conflict. While such mechanisms typically reduce the labor requirements involved in testing complex electrical circuits, they typically only identify conflicts and do not generally specifically identify locations of faults.
For example, a mechanism may note that a first termination point is connected to a second termination point in a specific electrical circuit. A technician may have to determine if the first termination point is supposed to be connected to the second termination point in order to know if a fault truly exists. Additionally, in a long and complex electrical circuit, the technician may have to examine many wires, terminal blocks, and other electrical elements in order to actually locate the fault.
Some advanced testing mechanisms may be able to inform technicians what faults exist by comparing measurements taken from electrical circuits with interconnection information containing details of the electrical circuits. However, these advanced mechanisms can typically only generally identify or find faults, still requiring technicians to spend many hours actually locating the faults.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved fault locator that overcomes the limitations of the prior art.